2016 CENSUS: Expect better exercise- Lakoju

As the controversy over the continued stay of the chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Felix Odimegwu continues, the commissioner representing Edo state in the Commission, Dr Tunde Lakoju has assured Nigerians that the 2016 census when conducted with the plans on ground by the Commission, Nigerians would have little to complain about on the eventual outcome of the exercise.

Lakoju told our reporter in Benin City that the proposal by the NPC for the next census exercise was to a large extent manipulation proof even as he said there have never been an accurate census exercise all over the world and therefore urged Nigerians not to panic on whether the 2016 census would be acceptable to all.

“I have no doubt in my mind that if the structural architecture that the National Population Commission has designed is properly implemented and funded, we are going to have fantastic census because what we are saying this time around is that we want to do a biometric census where people will have their finger prints, eyes, all the features including the DNA will be taken automatically.

“There are sophisticated machines and technology; its cost has been assessed, the owners of these machines have been interviewed, they have done their presentations, we have seen what they can do and where they don’t have the technology they have agreed to syndicate to produce them for us specially for Nigeria, where we will be able to do a census that people will not doubt.

“ If we go through biometric census and one persons decides to manipulate and go and register 50 times, because of the features that have been taken, once it comes to computation, you will discover that the system will reject 49 times and accept just one by and large we will be able to get a population figure that everybody will be ready

to identify with.”

On the acceptability and credible of the proposed exercise, Lakoju said; “There is no country in the world that have been able to come up with an accurate census but it is all approximation.